Alter.com Marketplace

[Deven Patel]

Hi all,

I wanted to introduce a new premium domain marketplace we just launched called Alter. I would love to hear your thoughts! As the world’s largest community of domainers, your feedback would be invaluable.

Let me introduce myself. Although I’m new to NamePros, I’ve been around the block. I’ve been buying and selling domains for my own startup ideas for over 20 years. As a serial entrepreneur, I founded a number of startups across various industries like marketing, web hosting, social networking, blogging, and SaaS. This experience has helped me understand how indispensable a brand name is to a business.

Most new entrepreneurs don’t think twice about their company name. Our goal is to change that! A brand name literally has the power to make or break their business. This is more true today than ever before now that there are countless alternatives to every product or service imaginable. Sure, every business may have their own world-changing differentiator but from the outside they all look the same at which point the main differentiator ends up becoming their brand name. In a world full of distractions, we no longer have the attention span to thoroughly research what we buy so we rely on our emotions. This is why large businesses like Apple and Amazon spend billions on their “brand” alone because they understand that customer perception is everything.

Anyway, I noticed that most marketplaces that exist today are focused more on the seller rather than the buyer. Our goal is to reverse the equation and prioritize buyers because I think they are the key to success in any industry. The domain industry is no exception. Without buyers, there’s no money. This is why we’ve made it our mission to help entrepreneurs succeed!

And what’s with the 30-35% commission rate most of these marketplaces are charging? Unless they’re doing more work than a human broker, I don’t think anything over the industry average of 15-20% is warranted. We’re changing that. Alter has one of the lowest rates in the industry, an all-inclusive 10% commission fee when a name sells. There are no other fees or restrictions.

What do you think? Are we on the right track or barking up the wrong tree?

Deven

This was a promoted post.​

 

[HandmadeLife]

Since the first day and I think that this person @F.E. is more attention-grabbing than a real buyer.

I don't think he will complete the purchase of alter, just more time and more Twitter followers + a little famous in the world of dominers.

who talks a lot does not do anything much, at least he would develop his own website !!!

all my respect to him, but this is how I feel about him since the first day.

 

[Deven Patel]

@Charybdis I completely understand your frustration but please try to put yourself in our shoes and think about it. I don't know what we could have done differently in this situation besides be totally honest with you. Regardless of whether a marketplace is big or small, established or not, it's the reputation of the people behind it that matters. In this case, we need the new owner to chime in and help provide more clarity around Alter's future but unfortunately they have been MIA.

You're no fool. Please don't be too hard on yourself. Chances are the person who bought your domain will still buy it from you. These types of things happen pretty often in business. In fact, I am in a similar situation myself right now. I'm spending cold hard cash maintaining the platform on behalf of the new owner while he is nowhere to be found.

On that note, have you or anyone else heard from @F.E. recently? I've been trying to reach him over the last week and a half without any luck. It's crucial that he contact me ASAP otherwise he will be in breach of our contract. It's also not fair to leave domain sellers who have been patiently waiting for an update in limbo. Again, all my previous interactions with him have been very positive so hoping he's just going through something personally. If not, this behavior is very unprofessional, let alone illegal.

 

[Deven Patel]

@F.E. Hello! Glad to hear you're okay and very sorry to hear about your personal situation with your godfather's father having cancer.

Sounds like there's a major misunderstanding here. I haven't accused you of anything yet. As I mentioned in my previous message, my past interactions with you have been very positive and I have nothing but respect for you my friend.

That said, I haven't received any kind of communication from you since Apr 11 which of course any normal person would find concerning. I'm glad you replied to my email but unfortunately I haven't received those replies on my end either. Do you mind texting me back so we can continue where we left off? It would be much appreciated.

Lastly, I have no time or interest in pursing any kind of legal action against you. The situation is very simple. If you want to follow through with the acquisition then great. Otherwise, we can both be on our merry way. I just want to ensure the domain sellers aren't left in a limbo in the meantime due to the uncertainty.

Again, I appreciate your reply here and hope to hear from you soon (feel free to call or text anytime).

 

[karmaco]

Sounds like some buyers remorse to me. Amazing how prolific tweeting wasn’t an issue for you (and sharing your sales and purchases) but ignoring everything Alter related apparently was.

Deven has never been anything but kind and professional. No one has said one thing against him or Alter. Until you.

You are ruining your own rep not Deven, not the sellers. Good luck. Intimidation is not a good look and the public airing of whatever the misunderstanding was and making threats is a no no here.

 

[HandmadeLife]

Please deven continue your projects away from this person, he said in his interview with Bob that he started this field a few years ago and has money from crypto as a former player from the beginning.

at the same time he said on Twitter that he sold a domain with 8 figures!! After it was rated it was worth nothing!!!

At the same time, he sells a lot of his domains for $20 and $30!!! .

He is a contradictory person please stay away from him.

all my respect to him but he will not buy alter

 

[Reyginus]

I saw red flags when I started seeing sales around $100 and below for someone who wants to buy alter. It was confusing and still is. Next red flag, agreed on a date to release a statement on the acquisition, yet nothing. With what we've seen so far, what are we supposed to expect if F.E eventually takes over? Not a good sign.

 

[johnn]

Fake Offer
F.E. stands for Fake Excuses
You can tell from all of his posting here. A businessman don't do what he did and don't make any announcement or prediction UNTIL the deal is sealed.

 

[chenzen]

What a drama! Pathetic response from @F.E.
@Deven should really pursue a legal action against him.

 

[Veneris]

Sold about a week ago on alter.
Listed price : $2,799
Sold price : $2799
Recieved: $2,519
Hold time : 3months

Thanks to Alter Team.

 

[DNGear]

Sold 3 domains in Alter this week. Your team was very helpful @Deven Patel. Thank you.

Worlds.xyz sold for 6000 usd
Objects.xyz sold for 6000 usd
Funded.xyz sold for 2500 usd

 

[HandmadeLife]

We all know now that @F.E. is fake !

I wish you a happy holiday, but lying is a big mistake, so don't manipulate anyone's feelings

 

[DotKing]

My first sale on Alter. All went smoothly, nice experience!
Thanks Alter!

 

[justsand]

Hi @Deven Patel, If you don't mind, can we know -

1. What are the top 10 biggest sales happened on Alter (If you can't disclose the name sale price will be fine)?
2. Avg selling price of the domain?
3. Minimum duration of the sale?
4. Ratio of BIN and Installment sales?
5. How much percent we will boost the sales rate by opting syndication option?
6. Interesting and important facts that we (sellers) should know about Alter?

I am curious (I hope others also) to know these things because there are very low published sales and few sellers claiming that alter is working for them than the other marketplace!

Thank you

 

[Deven Patel]

Hi everyone!

First and foremost, we'd like to thank you for using Alter to sell your domain names. We're honored to have the opportunity to serve you.

You asked, we listened. You provided so much valuable feedback over the last few months. Our team has been working around the clock to turn it into reality. We're excited to announce incredible new features!

Installment Plans
Alter now offers sellers the ability to sell domains via monthly installments! This allows buyers to spread their payments over 3-36 months making their domain purchase more affordable. Enabling installments will typically lead to quicker sales. Learn more ›

Price Adjustments
Sellers often asked us to tweak appraisals for their domains to better match their expectations. Well, now you can increase or decrease the list price of your domains by up to 20% once they're accepted.

Landing Pages
Landing pages are the best way to attract potential buyers so we're constantly tweaking them to improve performance. The latest round of updates include:

• Dynamic Colors: Looking at the same landing page for every domain can get boring even with unique logos. So we got creative! We programmed the header image along with other CTAs on the page to match the color of the logo.
• Pronunciation: Potential buyers can now hear an audio of how to pronounce the domain name with a click of a button.
• Bigger Logo: As the focal point of the landing page, it only made sense to make the logo bigger and more attractive.
• Social Proof: Buyers can now see the number of other people who viewed the domain recently. We also added our TrustPilot rating under the Buy Now button to boost conversions.

Curious about what the new landing pages look like? See example ›

Domain Management
Now that sellers are growing their portfolios on Alter, it's becoming cumbersome to manage their domains. Searching for one in their account is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. To improve this experience, we've added a new search bar and a Listed tab on the Domains page that will make it super easy to find your domains.

Smart Search
When we first launched, our search functionality was very basic. We've dramatically improved it to return results based on all of the domain's metadata like its keywords and categories. This will result in better and richer results for potential buyers. Try it yourself ›

Live Chat
Being able to assist buyers in real-time is more crucial today than ever before now that the average visitor attention span has dropped to mere seconds. We will now offer live chat to visitors on all domain landing pages to proactively help them with their inquiries during our business hours. And if it works well, we'll eventually offer it 24/7.

Traffic Breakdown
We understand it can be difficult to always see the value of using a domain marketplace like Alter to sell your valuable assets. So we broke it down for you! Your dashboard will now show a Traffic Breakdown pie chart which consists of the following three metrics:

• Marketplace Visitors: Number of people that learned about your domains through our marketplace.
• Partner Visitors: Number of people that learned about your domains via our partners (estimated).
• Direct Visitors: Number of people that learned about your domains by typing them directly in their browser.

We hope that this level of transparency will help you determine whether listing your portfolio with us is worth it. See chart ›

Partnerships
We're truly excited to announce that we've partnered up with some of the world's top marketplaces and registrars to give your domains maximum exposure! Starting later this month, your domains will automatically be listed on the following marketplaces and registrars:

• Sedo, DAN.com, IONOS, Namecheap, Network Solutions, Name.com, Epik, NameSilo, Hover, Dynadot, Register.com, BigRock, 101domain, SnapNames, Sav, Hexonet, Internet.bs, Moniker, Rebel, InterNetX, Dofo, WebNames, and more

This means you no longer have to worry about dealing with different companies, updating prices across accounts, re-verifying domains, etc. And you still only pay 10% commission on the price assigned to your domains on Alter. We'll just list them at slightly higher prices on other marketplaces to compensate for their higher commission. Win-win!

Action Required: In order to protect our relationships with these partners, you cannot list your Alter domains with any of the companies mentioned above since we will be doing it on your behalf moving forward. If they are already listed there, please remove them from there before February 15th. Otherwise, you are free to list them anywhere else you like.

Thanks for your continued support in our journey to change the world, one domain at a time. We're glad you're with us!

 

[JudgeMind]

My review of Alter.com after switching ALL of my nameservers to Alter!

Around 2 months ago I decided to test the new direction the alter marketplace is heading and at the end of September I moved all of my non Squadhelp listed domain names to alter (approximately 3000 names)

During October I was quite pleased to close 5 domain sales with alter. Each transaction was seamless and went through without any issues! I typically was selling at another marketplace that charged 20% commission and am happy to have saved close to $800 in commission by selling with alter for just 10% commission!

In November I also completed another 5 sales with alter and again no issues at all with transaction! Again I saved over $1000 in commission!

Also in November, I decided to leave squadhelp after being with them for 3 years. The reasoning here was primarily due to highest commission in the industry and reduced visibility of my portfolio of 800+ names. I may go deeper into my exit from Squadhelp in another post at a later date.

Since leaving squadhelp I had completed 2 sales of my previously listed sh names via alter! Combined savings from these two sales with alters 10% commission was over $1600!!. Funds that I am very happy to have!

I will follow up with an additional review that is more detailed after I’ve spent some more time with alter! Happy holidays!

Also a big thank you to @Deven Patel for your great support and communication!

 

[Deven Patel]

Due to popular demand, we just added Payoneer as a withdrawal method for sellers on Alter. So now sellers have the option to withdraw profits through PayPal, Payoneer, and wire transfers.

Thanks everyone for your feedback! @myfavorite @Abdullah Abdullah @Veneris

 

[DNGear]

Sold S/c/o/t/t .xyz for 7500 usd
Seamless process and team was very helpful.
Thanks @Deven Patel

 

[wwwulff]

Sold my first name via Alter - Mouty/com $5,399 (Premium listing) - Great experience, Thanks to Alter

 

[DNGear]

Arcade.xyz sold for 25500 usd. Another seamless transaction through Alter.

Thanks @Deven Patel

 

[Joe N]

Also wanted to let everyone know I recently sold Divine/Dating(com) on Alter. $2,699 sales price over 24 monthly installments.

It's already pointing to an active dating site!

 

[Samxui]

What's going on with Alter? Give us updates. Sales stats, new tools, etc

 

[sellian]

I am seeing more red flags than a Chinese communist parade.

Should I delist all my domains from Alter now?

 

[Deven Patel]

A small but significant update everyone!

We noticed that some of you were selling domains that were already accepted on Alter to other users who then wanted to re-list them on our marketplace. This process was cumbersome because you had to contact us to expedite the review process for these names which normally took a few days.

We just released a feature where domains already accepted in the past will automatically be re-accepted when the acquiring user submits them. And once they're re-verified, they will also automatically be listed on our marketplace instantly.

Thanks again for your continued patience and support!

 

[Veneris]

Sold a domain at alter

Evacart//com
Sold : $1,099
Name was there for 2weeks before sale.
Thanks to alter team.